Friday 15 November 2024
On Monday 11 November, our five Year 13 A-Level Geographers headed to Rhyd-y-Creuau in Wales’ Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park. The purpose of their five-day residential was to practise data collection methods in physical and human geography in order to collect data to use in their Non-Examined Assessments (NEAs) to contribute to their final A-Level grades.
On Monday and Tuesday, Zahra, Nala, Marvelous, Josh and Alysha used their knowledge of the Water and Carbon Cycles to calculate the carbon content of trees in the Conwy catchment, and measure differences in infiltration rates around the FSC site we were staying at. They also re-capped GCSE-level knowledge of coastal defences at Criccieth to measure changes to the beach profile and evaluate the quality of the hard engineering used to protect the coastline along Cardigan Bay.
We spent Wednesday in the seaside town on Llandudno investigating different perspectives of place, taking account of the high streets shops to apply to the ‘Clone Town’ theory which they had looked at in their Changing Places lessons.
Thursday and Friday were spent working more independently in the peatlands and forests of the Conwy catchment and in Llandudno town centre to collect primary data to be used in their NEAs on themes relating to infiltration rates, changes to retail opportunities and influence of a place’s history.
All students really enjoyed their time away, whether it was the late-night films, double portions for breakfast and tea, or completing a variety of practical applications of knowledge and skills that they had looked at in class, and are looking forward to spending time presenting and analysing their data, and finishing their NEAs over the coming months.